January 2024 - Counterfeit Kit Challenge Blog Inspiration Kit Reveal and Social Media Hop!

Wow.  December really flew by!  Maybe it's because I just wasn't as "into it" as I normally am.  Nope not a Grinch.  I love Christmas but we had a ton of changes this year and one of our babies flew the nest, kinda throwing me off kilter.  I wasn't ready.  She was and she's doing okay.  I really miss her though.  

However, it IS the first of the month AND the first of the new year.  I have two things for you! The first is that I was handed the reins to the Counterfeit Kit Challenge Blog as the new leader.  I love my team and I know we are going to do great things together BECAUSE we always do. You can read about the changes here.  It's a big responsibility but I know that with my team, I can do it!  We'll miss Lisa though.

OK, the second thing, of course is the NEW CKCB Inspiration Kit Reveal and the Social Media Hop that goes with it.  I had to change the name of the hop to a Social Media Hop because our Master Forgers don't all use blogs.  We have members on YouTube and Instagram only as well as the few of us who maintain a blog.  So, let me share with you the first kit we are using to curate our own kits from our stash:

Hip Kit Club December 2023 Main Kit

I am a subscriber to this awesome kit club so it would SO very easy for me to cheat and use this kit for my monthly kit, BUT I didn't!  Nope!  What I did do was go through all of my Hip Kits that I own and find papers and embellishments to use this month.  I think I did a good job counterfeiting this kit without cheating.  If you know me, you KNOW I started with their papers.  Here's a photo of just the papers in the December kit:

This gives you a little better view of those papers.  It just so happened that I was playing with one of their kits at the time that Master Forger Cindy shared that this was the kit she was choosing for January and that kit had a piece of pink woodgrain in it.  I started with that piece of patterned paper.  That paper came from HKS's Dream Big collection which was showcased in their January 2021 kit.  Yes, I still have that kit.  I don't have ALL of it but I do have that pink woodgrain.  So, it's the very first piece of patterned paper that I put into my kit.  

The next patterned paper I set out to find a match for was the snowflake wreath.  Lo and behold, the December 2020 kit had a similar piece in it.  It's so close to the one in the December 2023 kit that I was happy with my choice. I also pulled a patterned paper from this same kit to match up that paper with the houses!  Perfect!!  So, here's a photo of my papers!

 

Instead of the sweater texture squares I went with a stripe but otherwise I tried to find things that were close.  I am quite happy with these 11 paterned papers I have in my kit.  I decided to just stop there.

Here's a photo of my alphas.  You know me, I always put more alphas and phrases in my kit than in the inspiration kit because I NEED choices!  I almost never know what I will end up scrapbooking during the month so I give myself lots of leeway.  

Next, are my embellishments.  This is where I kinda deviated from the inspiration kit.  I decided to put things in there that I have been meaning to use like those Color Cast acrylic pieces.  There's also a pack of winter ephemera from one of the HKC kits that I pillaged this month.

This month, my very wonderful friend, Kristen from Scrapping on the Fly on YouTube and Instagram responded to my distressing call and said she would be my Guest Designer for the month of January!  Here's a wonderful photo of her!  Isn't she just beautiful?  Inside and out....

Hello! My name is Kristen, I am the proud mom of two, mostly, grown kiddos and a lover of all things scrapbooking! Making the memories to scrapbook, buying the collections and crafty tools, organizing all the fun stash and, of course, using all the different craft things to make a layout! I started my fist official scrapbook in 1996 and have been creating ever since!

Here's the Social Media Hop for January:

1st January - Counterfeit Kit Challenge Reveal and Hop:

• Counterfeit Kit Challenge - http://counterfeitkitchallenge.blogspot.com/  
•  Guest Designer Kristen - https://www.instagram.com/scrappingonthefly/
•  Tara - https://kryptonite72-rambles.blogspot.com/
• Christine - https://www.youtube.com/@ScrappingHarden
• Tina - http://tinasscrapcorner.blogspot.com/
• Misty - https://craftysoup.com/
• Laurie - https://www.instagram.com/scrapbookingbits/

 

Thank you so much for stopping by my blog today!  I really appreciate you.  You can see more of my work using my January kit either on Instagram or YouTube!  Please check them out and say hi while you are there!!! 

 

November 2023 - Counterfeit Kit Challenge Blog Inspiration Kit REVEAL and Social Media Hop!!!

Whew!!!  October was tough!!!  Anyone else?  Here it is, the first of November.  It's a month of thankfulness for those of us in the United States.  It's the love of my life's birthday month.  The heat has finally gone away until next May or so.  This means those bugs have all disappeared and it's my favorite time of the year to go hiking!  ;)  But it's also time for the Inspiration kit to be revealed over at Counterfeit Kit Challenge Blog and our monthly social media hop.  This month, our fearless leader, Master Forger Lisa has picked a beautiful Christmas kit from Hip Kit Club-their November 2022 kit:

Here's an unboxing video if you'd like to watch:

There are MANY MANY videos of ladies using this kit, including some from yours truly as I am a subscriber!  You can check out my channel for the Christmas In.... (insert month) series.  I have used this kit combined with the previous two years' November kits for these videos. 

Before we talk about my kit and how I was inspired by it, I want to introduce you to our Guest Designer for this month - Silvia!  You can find her on Instagram:

 https://www.instagram.com/silvia_scrappt/ 

Welcome to the team for the month, Silvia! 

So, I am NOT ready for a full on Christmas kit yet.  Nope.  I did several Christmas layouts during October because that's where I am at in scrapping my 2015 family albums.  I am not done with those, but I am not ready to submit to a full kit of Christmas!  So, I am going a little bit rogue this month!  I created a color palette from the main kit photo and I will be using this to create my November CKCB kit.  I am kind of excited about my kit. So here's the color palette:

The inspiration kit is gorgeous.  And I love the exclusive product that I receive from HKC.   I love it so much that I am guilty of hoarding it!  I have one cube in one of my Kallax shelves to hold these kits.  It's FULL.  So, I decided I would dig through my hoarded kits to create my kit! 

Here's my kit:

 Here's a photo of just my patterned paper:

I do want to make a mention that although all of these items came from my hoarded HKC kits, two of the patterned papers are actually PinkFresh Studios.  Every once in awhile, HKC puts non-exclusive papers and embellishments in their kits. 

 Make sure you check out the Social Media Hop!  I have everyone listed below!

 

1st November - Counterfeit Kit Challenge Reveal and Hop 

• Counterfeit Kit Challenge - http://counterfeitkitchallenge.blogspot.com/ 
• Guest Designer Silvia - https://www.instagram.com/silvia_scrappt/ 
• Brandi - https://www.instagram.com/scrappy.boymama/ 
• Christine - https://www.youtube.com/@ScrappingHarden  
• Cindy - https://cindyscreations-cinmfoster.blogspot.com/  
• Julene - http://julenebydesign.blogspot.com/  
• Lisa - http://lisahausmann.blogspot.com  
• Leslie - http://lcsmithsaved-outofthemire.blogspot.com  
• Tara - https://kryptonite72-rambles.blogspot.com/  
• Tina - http://tinasscrapcorner.blogspot.com/   



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Thank you so much for stopping by my blog today! 

May 2023 Counterfeit Kit Club Blog Inspiration Kit Reveal and Social Media Hop!!!

 Hi!  Welcome to my blog!  It's the first of the month and that means it MUST BE time for another CKCB Inspiration Kit Reveal and Social Media Hop!!  Wow!  This year is flying!!  I have my last homeschool student graduating this month and I just can't believe how FAST the whole school year went!!

This month, Master Forger Julene, chose a beautiful kit from Not Just For Boys Kit Club!  It's full of beautiful muted neutrals and yellows.  I just love it!!  I even own a few of the pieces from the inspiration kit!  I will be making this kit my own but first let's look at some photos of the kit.  Here's the link to the kit on NJFB Kit Club's website:
Noteworthy Kit by Not Just For Boys Kit Club

 Here are the papers, both A & B sides:

Here is a close-up of the embellishments in the kit:

And here are some more close-ups of the kit as a whole:

This kit is a little bit too neutral for me, BUT I think I added enough colors to mine by just staying with the original kit's color palette.  I just expanded upon it a "little". The first thing I did was dig into my stash to see if I had any of the papers that were actually in the inspiration kit.  I do own the Simple Stories collection, but I have used part of it.  I pulled that black floral, the scrap of green patterned papers with the keys and the one cut apart paper that I had partially used.  Then, I looked to see if I had a yellow piece like the yellow detailed patterned paper in the kit.  I had a similar piece in my PinkFresh Studios stash and so I pulled it.  Here's the papers that I pulled.  I have 20 12x12 patterned papers, 1 8.5x11 patterned paper, and a few scraps.  

Many of my patterned papers came from Park Lane paper pads.  The woodgrain papers are from Memory Place and a few of the papers are from very OLD Maggie Holmes paper pads.  This gives me a little more of a variety and color than the original kit without going completely rogue!!!  I am very happy with these selections!  

My embellishments and alphas are also rather large this month, but that's always the case with my CKCB kits!  First, I checked my April kit to see if there was anything in it that I could pull.  Surprisingly enough, there was quite a few pieces.  I pulled those and then I dug into this old storage system I had started eons ago for all of my ephemera and pulled a BUNCH of great pieces.  This old storage system consists of a floss binder and ziploc bags,sorted into themes.  It didn't work out for me.  So as I pull from it, I am not putting anything bag into it at all.  

I pulled in the chipboard and ephemera pieces from the Simple Stories collection.  The rest of this came from my April kit!! There are Ali Edwards, P13, etc lovelies in this photo.  That wood veneer house was put into my April kit for a specific layout that I didn't complete so it also joined my May kit.

I added my Simple Vintage Weathered Garden foamies and the yellow alpha from Fancy Pants plus some other miscellaneous Thickers sets to give me plenty of varieties and choices for my titles!

All of the pocket cards on the top row in the below photo came from my March AND April kits.  I really would like to use these and not put them away!!!  I didn't get as many layouts completed during April so didn't touch the pocket cards at all.  The rest of the ephemera are from various collections and designers, most of which I cannot remember who made them.  However, there ARE some Studio Calico, Elle's Studio, and October Afternoon bits in there for sure.  The wood veneer also came from my April kit and are from Freckled Fawn.

Alright!  That is my kit for the month of May!  I don't think it's as large as it normally is because the Iris case I keep it in seems like it has lots of room!!  I hope this means that I will use up most of this and not have to put it all away!  Scrap Happy has LOAD in May and of course, we have lots of choices of festivities for iNSD on May 6th.  In fact, you can join the Master Forgers for iNSD Bingo!

So here's the Social Media Hop for this month!  Make sure you check out all of the links to the Master Forgers' blogs or other social media and our Guest Designer too!!  We also are welcoming two new Master Forgers this month:  Brandi and Christine!  Let's make sure to give them lots of love!!!  

May 1^st – Counterfeit Kit Challenge Reveal and Hop

• Counterfeit Kit Challenge: http://counterfeitkitchallenge.blogspot.com/

• Cindy: https://cindyscreations-cinmfoster.blogspot.com

• Julene: http://julenebydesign.blogspot.com

• Brandi : https://www.instagram.com/scrappy.boymama/

• Leslie: http://lcsmithsaved-outofthemire.blogspot.com

• Christine: https://www.youtube.com/@ScrappingHarden/videos

• Misty: https://craftysoup.com/

• Tara:  https://kryptonite72-rambles.blogspot.com

• Tina: http://tinasscrapcorner.blogspot.com

•  Anna: https://www.youtube.com/c/piececraftlove

Thank you for stopping by my blog today!  You have a GREAT DAY!!!

April 2023 - CKCB Inspiration Kit Reveal and Social Media Hop!!!

Whoa....it's April! How can that be?  March was flurry of activities on YouTube for me.  I participated in the 30 Days of Sketches, Series 11 by Christy's Beautiful Life.  I have managed to do all 30 of the sketches with a process video!  Yay.  You can see those on my channel - The Paper Snob.

Let's get to the best part of the month and that is the reveal of the Counterfeit Kit Challenge Blog inspiration kit and social media hop!  This month, Master Forger Misty is in charge and she has chosen the SCT Sampler Kit  from Scrapbook & Cards Today Magazine.  She chose their March 2022 SCT Sampler kit, which you can see here (at the bottom of the post). 

Here's some photos of the kit for you!

I really took my inspiration from the Violet Studio paper pack, which reminded me of Paige Evans' Turn The Page collection!  So, let me show you my kit contents! 

First up are my papers.  Like I mentioned, I took my inspiration from that Violet Studio paper pack. I had purchased the entire collection of Turn The Page on eBay last year.  I have used only bits and pieces of it so this is the perfect excuse for me to pull it out and use it! 

I did pull in more than just the florals that reminded me of the paper pack because I wanted to have some more masculine papers to play with as well.  

Next up are my alphas and be warned...I pulled in a BUNCH!

Some of them are open and have been partially used but there are three unopened packages of alphas.  I pulled in some of the embellishments from the Turn The Page collection as well as some other things.  I have a few of the ephemera, washi strips, layered stickers, and the sticker book from the collection PLUS I pulled in some older October Afternoon sticker sheets, a set of puffy stickers from Paige Evans Whimsical, some Ali Edwards embellishments, and some P13 phrase stickers.  I also pulled in an almost used up sheet of Maggie Holmes chipboard pieces.

As I was putting away my beautiful March kit, I also pulled some embellishments from that kit to add to this one.  Who wants to put away all that stuff when you can USE it, am I right???

 Finally, I also did my Add-On Base Papers kit for this month as well.

We have a great guest designer for the month, Kathy Leicht-Gregg.  Make sure you check out her kit and her creations this month.  

Here's the Social Media Hop for this month

Counterfeit Kit Challenge: http://counterfeitkitchallenge.blogspot.com/

Guest Designer: Kathy Leicht-Gregg in Instagram @codakathy

Anna: https://www.youtube.com/c/piececraftlove

Cindy: https://cindyscreations-cinmfoster.blogspot.com

Julene: http://julenebydesign.blogspot.com

Leslie: http://lcsmithsaved-outofthemire.blogspot.com

Lisa: https://lisahausmann.blogspot.com/

Misty: https://craftysoup.com/

Tara:  https://kryptonite72-rambles.blogspot.com

Here's what we have in store for you this month!

JUST THE GIST - April 2

FORGERIES - April 4

MINI KIT - April 6

CHALLENGE #1 - April 12

CHALLENGE #2 - April 18

FOLLOWERS SHOWCASE - April 24

KILLING THE KIT - April 30

 

Thank you for stopping by my blog today!  I hope that you have a great weekend!!

March 2023 Counterfeit Kit Club Blog Inspiration Kit Reveal and Social Media Hop!!!

 It's March 1st!  Yay!!  This means that Spring is around the corner and at the very least, we will start seeing some warmer days!!  I have lots of birds at my feeder in my yard too!  The first of the month ALSO means that it is time for the CKC Inspiration Kit Reveal and Social Media Hop!!  Yay!!  This month, Master Forger Anna, chose a gorgeous kit from Traci Reed Designs!  Here's a look at Time To Thrive by Traci Reed!! 

 Here's the digital kit as well!

Here are some close-ups of the various elements in the kit:

If you aren't familiar with Traci Reed, she has designed collections for a few mainstream companies but this particular kit is almost identical to the collection StoryTeller by Cocoa Vanilla that was designed by Traci Reed.  That is where I started out in my stash dive to curate my own kit for this month.  I also added a few more papers from Felicity Jane and Dear Lizzy to round out some of the patterns.  The bulk of my kit is StoryTeller.  So, without further ado, here's my MAIN KIT:

I separated my large kit (are you even surprised???) into a Main or Base kit and add-ons again for the month of March! Here's my Alpha add-on:

 Pocket Cards:

Miscellaneous Embellishments:

Phrases:

 I also added stamps to my kit but forgot to photograph those.  I added them onto the very end of my kit video which you can find here on my YouTube Chanel:

March 2023 Counterfeit Kit Challenge Blog Kit

 Here's the Social Media Hop for the month of February!  Make sure you check out our Guest Designer, Amanda, as well as the other Master Forgers to see their takes on this gorgeous kit!

Counterfeit Kit Challenge: http://counterfeitkitchallenge.blogspot.com/

Guest Designer: Amanda Castle: https://youtube.com/@ajoyfulscrapper

Anna: https://www.youtube.com/c/piececraftlove

Cindy: https://cindyscreations-cinmfoster.blogspot.com

Julene: http://julenebydesign.blogspot.com

Leslie: http://lcsmithsaved-outofthemire.blogspot.com

Misty: https://craftysoup.com/

Tara:  https://kryptonite72-rambles.blogspot.com

Tina: http://tinasscrapcorner.blogspot.com

Here's the line-up for the month!  Please join our Facebook community if you'd like to share your kits and layouts with us using your kits!  We are a great group of scrapbookers!!  

• 2nd March - Just the Gist of It - to help you find an easy way to create your kit.
• 4th March - Forgery on the Fourth - Master Forgers share simple ideas for creating kit elements.
• 6th March - Mini Kit Reveal and Project Showcase - Inspiration for a smaller kit or project ideas.
• 12th March - Challenge #1 - To inspire you to get creating from your own kit.
• 18th March - Challenge #2 - To inspire you to get creating from your own kit.
• 24th March - Follower's Showcase - who has caught our eye this month.
• 28th March - Killing the Kit - an idea or two focusing on using up the bits and pieces left in your kit.

 

Thank you for stopping by my blog today!  Have a GREAT rest of your week!! 

 

January 2023- Counterfeit Kit Challenge Blog Inspiration Kit Reveal and Blog Hop

 WHOA!  How is it a new year already?  I really think 2022 went by fairly fast.  We had a lot happen in the year:  COVID, two deployments, a military move, etc! It was a little crazy.  I am hoping this year will bring more calm and peace for all of us!  

Since it's the first of the month, it is also time for our Counterfeit Kit Challenge Blog Inspiration Kit Reveal and Blog Hop!  This month our fearless leader, Master Forger Lisa chose Hip Kit Club December 2022 kit for us to counterfeit!  I subscribe to this kit club and at the time of this writing, I haven't received my kit yet.  But that is NOT why I am not taking the lazy way out and just using the kit when it arrives for my January kit!  Nope! I actually dug through my stash of Hip Kits that I have a backlog of as well as some paper pads and my PinkFresh Studios stash to build my kit.  Before I show you what I came up with, let's take a look at the Hip Kit Club kit!  

Master Forger Lisa gave us both of these options to build our kits from!  So, here's where I am going to be honest.  This isn't my favorite of their kits.  It's also not my least favorite (ahem, the July 2022 kit), but I digress.  I am not in the mood to scrapbook solely winter photos this year so I knew from the start that I was going to probably steer clear of anything with winter or holiday icons because I don't really have winter themed photos printed.  I will be starting my 2015 family albums this year, or rather working on them because I actually already have been scrapbooking photos from that year.  I have ALL of the photos printed for the entire year and into albums waiting for me to make them into layouts!  I feel ahead of the game for a change!! HA!!

So, I did what I always do and pulled up the papers.  Here's a photo from the HKC site of just the patterned papers in the kit:

The first thing that caught my eye AFTER the lovely woodgrain (swoon) was the light blue floral on the right hand side.  It reminded me of PinkFresh Studios Some Days collection and that is the first paper I pulled for my own kit.

I am actually curious how many of the Master Forgers thought of the same paper and included it in their own kits.  I'll know as soon as I read all of the blog posts today!!!

I also added two sheets of woodgrain patterned papers from a Park Lane paper pad called Farmhouse Fresh.  I love that paper pad!!  It's quite lovely but that's the only piece that really went with my idea of how this kit was going to go together.

Next thing I did was create a color palette so that I could just pull papers based upon that.  I actually ended up not using that but here it is for you if you'd like to use it for your own kitting fun.

From here, I just looked at the designs in the papers in the original kit and started pulling papers that were close enough.  I pulled three more sheets from paper pads: 

• Peach floral from Park Lane Explore
• White mushroom from Park Lane Explore
• Navy floral from Park Lane Sunshine and Rain

Here's a photo of all of my papers.  I will tell you what they are underneath!

Left Side:

• PinkFresh Studios - Everyday Musings - Small Things
• Woodgrain paper X2 - Park Lane - Farmhouse Fresh
• Hip Kit Club - Keeping Cozy - Photo Gallery B SIDE
• Hip Kit Club - Keeping Cozy - Perfect Plaid B SIDE
• Hip Kit Club - Together Is Best - My Favorite & My Best B SIDE
• Hip Kit Club - Together Is Best - So Timeless B SIDE
• Park Lane - Sunshine and Rain
• PinkFresh Studio - Be You - Kind B SIDE
  
• Hip Kit Club - Wild & Free - Stargazer B SIDE 
• Hip Kit Club - Keeping Cozy - My Happy Place
• PinkFresh Studio - My Favorite Story - Beauty of Simplicity B SIDE

Right Side:

 

• PinkFresh Studio - Happy Hearts - Happy Heart B SIDE
• Park Lane - Explore
• Park Lane - Explore
• PinkFresh Studio - Happy Blooms - Heirloom B SIDE
• PinkFresh Studio - Some Days - Friendly Daisies
• PinkFresh Studio - Be You - Sincere 
• PinkFresh Studio - Be You - Beautiful
• Hip Kit Club - Dream Big - It's Time To Shine B SIDE
• Hip Kit Club - Keeping Cozy - Cozy Toes B SIDE
• PinkFresh Studio - Simple & Sweet - Splendid

The yellow patterned paper in the center, bottom is PinkFresh Studio Keeping It Real Daily Grind-the B SIDE.  In fact, you will notice that I chose a ton of B SIDES for my papers this month!  I find that I like the B sides of patterned papers more often than the A.  Weird, huh??  I also want to make a note of the PinkFresh Studios Be You Sincere piece was put into my kit in place of the diamond patterned paper from the Inspiration Kit. 

 

I also chose a TON of embellishments as always!  The first photo shows embellishments from Hip Kit Club various kits, PinkFresh Studios, Felicity Jane, Heidi Swapp, and Carta Bella.  There are labels and chipboard flair and die cuts and chipboard stickers!  Lots of fun stuff to play with.

The second photo shows 8 rolls of washi tape, some labels, enamel dots, more chipboard stickers, journaling spots, shaped metal clips, vellum stickers from and a mixture of loose chipboard, die cuts and wood veneer.  I dug through my stash of Freckled Fawn, Felicity Jane, PinkFresh Studios, and Studio Calico.

Finally, I also dug into my stash of alphas, title ephemera, and phrase stickers from PinkFresh Studios, Hip Kit, and Felicity Jane.  I definitely gave myself plenty to choose from for titles for my layouts this month.  I like choices. 

I did NOT create a winter themed kit.  I wanted to be a little more neutral in that department because I don't take a lot of winter photos typically, although once I start scrapbooking 2020-2022 photos, I have lots of snow photos from our time being stationed at Fort Drum, NY.  Right now, I am scrapbooking 2015 and I have the full year printed out and ready to go!  

Here's the full blog hop below!  Make sure you check out our Guest Designer, Anandi!!

• Counterfeit Kit Challenge - http://counterfeitkitchallenge.blogspot.com/
• Guest Designer - Anandi - https://www.instagram.com/anandirc/
• Anna - https://www.youtube.com/c/piececraftlove
• Cindy - https://cindyscreations-cinmfoster.blogspot.com 
• Julene - http://julenebydesign.blogspot.com   
• Juliet - https://www.instagram.com/julesd
• Leslie - http://lcsmithsaved-outofthemire.blogspot.com 
• Misty - https://craftysoup.com/
• Tara - https://kryptonite72-rambles.blogspot.com 
• Tina - http://tinasscrapcorner.blogspot.com 

Also, don't forget that we have lots in store for you this month!  Here's the rundown!

• 2nd January - Just the Gist of It
• 4th January - Forgeries on the Fourth
• 6th January - Mini Kit and Project Reveal
• 12th January - Challenge #1
• 18th January - Challenge #2
• 24th January - Follower Showcase
• 28th January - February Sneak Peek
• 31st January - Killing the Kit

We love to hear from our community, so if you aren't a member of our FaceBook Community come check us out over there and share your kits and layouts/projects using your kits!   

 

Thank you for stopping by my blog today!  Have a GREAT week!